Every player would love to be able to dunk. Quite honestly every coach would like to see their players dunk. After all, it’s the highest percentage shot on the court.
But an outstanding vertical leap is a part of so many facets of the game that leaping to dunk is only scratching the surface.
A great leaper will win more opening tips. They’ll get more rebounds. They’ll save more balls from going out of bounds. Block more shots.
Well, you get the idea. Vertical leap gives your players a big advantage. Here are some basketball tips to increase vertical leap.
In the Weight Room
Squats
The bread and butter of any leg workout is the squat. It’s great for overall development of lower body muscles. Glutes, quads, and calves are all key muscles in vertical leap and squats add sheer muscle strength.
Calf Raises
Calf raises can be performed in a squat rack, but I prefer to do calf raises on a machine. The machine removes the need to balance and allows you to focus on muscle action. By extending your toe and focusing on calf development, you’re adding that final explosion in the vertical jump.
Both squats and calf raises are best performed slowly. It does little good to throw the weight up. Go slow and feel the muscles pushed to their limit.
On Court or at Home
Lunges
Lunges can serve a dual purpose when used in practice. They can be a great warm-up exercise as well as a good tool for developing vertical leap.
There are several varieties. Walking lunges require a little more room than jumping lunges, but put less strain on joints. If you’re doing lunges early in your practices, keep that in mind.
Plyometric lunges are an intense form of lunge. You start with your rear foot resting on a low-lying bench and your front foot on the floor. With the one leg, you jump as high as you can, keeping your rear foot on the bench at all times.
Elevated Jumps
Elevated jumps are performed with a low platform. You can start on the platform, jump as high as you can, land lightly on the floor, and then jump back to the platform.
You can do explosion jumps putting one foot on the platform, exploding off that front foot, and switching feet in mid-air. Be careful with this one. Make sure your players don’t land on the platform and twist an ankle. Injured players don’t jump very high.
Double Leg Jumps
Double leg jumps are used by many coaches. The player puts both feet side by side. They then jump off both feet at the same time. One jump immediately follows the previous one.
Double leg jumps are great for later in practice when the team is getting tired. The team is popping in place like a bunch of jack-in-the-boxes. This gives the coach a chance to do a little motivational talk about how when we’re tired we dig deeper and guts it out or how the team will be in better condition than any team they meet. It’s a good time for the “forth quarter is ours” speech.
Work on improving team vertical leap. It’s one of those aspects that can make an improvement in every aspect of your team’s play.
Image by myogaeba.